


What Comes After

by reallyshamefulmuttering



Category: Coraline (2009), Coraline - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demon Hunters, Childhood Friends, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 02:24:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18511975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reallyshamefulmuttering/pseuds/reallyshamefulmuttering
Summary: Coraline Jones decides to do what she does best: Survive encounters with otherworldly creatures.





	What Comes After

"Your parents said you're all packed up." A voice interrupted the silent, pensive stare that studied the world ahead of her. Sitting with her back against the garden wall, Coraline had managed to find a little slot of quiet amongst the festivities her parents had set up. Despite all the praise being gushed her way, she took the first chance available to duck away from the party. She needed some time to herself, to focus on her thoughts... Of course, Wybie wasn't far behind. _There goes the peace and quiet._. He sat in the dirt beside her, staring out into the distance. "It's gonna be lonely with you off at college. Who's going to watch the world's shittiest horror movies with me?"

"Looks like you'll have to make some friends." Coraline cracked with a snorted laugh. Her fingers carded through the dirt, drawing lines and absent minded patterns. In the trees, a squirrel raced across the ground as though it was being chased. Spiralling up the nearest trunk to disappear into the leaves. 

"If I could do that, I would have done it years ago. You think I wanted to be stuck with you?" Somehow, it made her laugh. A genuinely amused laugh. Which was all he was aiming for in the first place. Just to get a lasting smile on her face. "Getting cold feet? I've never seen you take off from a party that fast." 

Despite being inseparable since they were eleven, the last few weeks they had barely seen one another. With convenient excuses popping up left and right for why she couldn't hang out with him or why she was cancelling movie night. Wybie didn't want to _point out_ that he knew she was avoiding him. They both knew it was obvious, but neither had it in them to embrace the truth. It was going to be hard on both of them, after doing almost everything together for years now, to suddenly have to cope without the other's company.

"Yeah, I'm just... Not feeling up for celebrating." She'd even tried to claim she was sick to get out of the overplanned event with a fever faked the night before like she was a little girl again. Her mother had seen through it within seconds, attempting to pry the real excuse from her daughter. Coraline had never shut up faster in her life. She could put up with a party for a few hours if it meant keeping her secrets.

"It's scary, but you'll be fine,” he assured her without hesitation, bobbing his bony shoulders in a shrug. "You're scarier than anything at that school. And, you can always warn people about your _super scary_ best friend back home."

Coraline watched him, expressionless, as he pulled the corners of his mouth and faked a grotesque grimace. She hated when he made faces like that, without fail it always pulled the memory of his face sewn into a smile from the back of her mind. She pushed his hands away from his mouth but he didn't relent yet, he continued to make faces, tongue sticking out obnoxiously her way until she interrupted an imitation of a zombie's groan. "It's not the school, alright?"

She didn't spend a lot of time _genuinely_ mad at him. Usually he could push her buttons all day long until she snapped. His smile fell away as he tilted his head to try and coax her into meeting his gaze. "So... What is it, then?"

"...Can I tell you something, Wybie?" With lingering apprehension, she forced the words out of her mouth. Staring to the treetops with the brief wish that she could disappear like the wildlife. She wasn't entirely convinced that she should even be telling him _anything_ about her plans, the nervous boy had a habit of combusting under pressure and she couldn't run the risk of having everything ruined. Lying to her only real friend was something she really struggled with, more than her family or any other friend. With the deadline drawing nearer and nearer, keeping it secret wasn't an option anymore. "Something you _cannot_ tell my parents?"

"Oh _God._ " He groaned in reflex, covering his eyes with his hand. "What did you do?"

She pushed him over by the shoulder, knocking him briefly onto his side in the dirt and successfully cutting his dramatics off. He didn't stay down for long, unfortunately. His worried gaze burned through her and she defensively mumbled toward her knees. "It's-- It's not that bad, it's not even the worst thing I've done, so no one should really get _mad_ at me."

"Jonesy." 

"I lied about getting accepted," Coraline replied flatly. "There's no college, I faked it all. I lied to my parents." 

Confusion, trying to pick it apart. If it hadn't been _Coraline Jones_ he wouldn't have believed it. Only she could say something like that and be entirely serious... Still, he stayed staring at her and waiting for her to shout 'Sike!'. She just kept looking at him with big brown eyes rimmed with sadness and sleep deprivation. There was no joke. "Jesus, you're serious." He breathed out his exasperation. "When were you planning on telling your parents?"

Unspoken lied the question, _When were you going to tell me?_

She wanted to just curl into a ball and skip the whole thing. Jump forward in her life to where everything was figured out. Having to fake her way through today, with the party, the goodbyes, the lying. It was eating her up inside. It made it easier for the fear to churn its way through system and try to convince her not to go. As she tried to ground herself, to relax and get her words out again, silence lingered between them. One that allowed Wybourn to contemplate how his best friend always managed to get into _stupid_ situations.

"I'm not going to tell them." Coraline finally admitted. With her words hanging in silence, she was quick to try and justify it. Her words almost falling from her mouth with borderline incoherency. "I have a plan, it's something I've been planning for a long time and it's _stupid_ and reckless, but it's something I have to do and- and I know, I _know_ you think I'm crazy, I don't care. Just... Don't tell my parents." 

A low groan left the boy, who's hands covered his face. "I hate lying for you, Jonesy, I really do, I'm an honest guy." He pointed out, muffled by his palms. 

"You lie to me all the time!" A scowl pulled her sour expression further.

"I said lying _for_ you, not _to_ you. You're easy to lie to." He defended himself without looking back up at her. She resisted the urge to punch him in the shoulder.

"Whatever, Why-were-you-born. Just don't talk to my parents. I'll... Make it up to them, eventually, but I can't do this without lying to them."

Here came the part he wanted to avoid. The more details he got, the worse off he'd be. Roped into shenanigans headed by one Coraline Jones. He always had such a weakness when it came to tagging along on her nonsense, for once he just wanted something to go the way it was supposed to. "...And, you're doing... What?"

"You're going to call me crazy."

"Correction, I will do that no matter what you say."

"I'm not crazy."

"You have your moments."

Once again, the urge to sock him right in the arm was nearly overwhelming. Coraline's eyes rolled back in her head as her head tipped up, dyed hair tangling against the jagged stone she rested against. "...You remember when we were kids?" Wybie shrugged noncommittally. "When I first moved here, and all of that--"

" _Oh God, this is about that?_ " Wybourn interrupted her, pushing his gangly body off the ground to gesture down at the huddled form of his closest friend. "She's gone, Coraline, if she wasn't you would have seen her again _years_ ago!"

Through their lives, Wybie had become Coraline's most essential confidant. Being someone she could trust to both be _real_ and to actually believe her story about the nightmare she lived through made him essential to the girl and her constant theorizing. Countless nights had featured at least _one_ argument about the Other Mother, about her whole _world_ , about her _coming back_ for Coraline. To the point where they could usually finish eachother's argument mid-sentence. The frustration in his tone made her almost regret confiding in him once again.

"What if there's more like her?" She asked, with an unusual softness to her voice that stopped him in his tracks. With a tremor that betrayed the genuine _fear_ she still had, even after all these years. It reminded him that, despite all of her walls and snark, she was just a girl. Grown beyond her years but still that scared girl with a poison ivy branch in hand. "There's other kids out there, kids like me, who don't know any better. If there was _one_... How do I know there aren't more?"

Over the low stone fence, Wybourn looked out to the party. Coraline's family, her friends, all mingled pleasantly over the soft tune of pop music. It was easy to forget that she had a problem enjoying herself. She could fake a smile and small talk just as well as anyone else, but she hadn't enjoyed herself during busy events in years. He could remember the first time she'd ducked away from a crowded party and he'd followed her. She confided her fear and he stayed by her side, all night long, until they didn't need to hide anymore. All of her oddities and quirks, he embraced. Encouraged her to avoid parties if it made her feel safer. She rejected gifts and avoided carnivals and had an excuse for every quirk that stemmed from the terror that often woke her screaming in the night. Maybe she didn't want him there at times, but he always was.

He ducked back down, kneeling in the dirt in front of her to avoid Coraline's mother's roaming gaze. She could only get away with hiding from her own party for so long. 

"You did your part, Jonesy. You survived! You kicked _ass_ and you made it out alive. You're the hero of the horror movie, you get to live a real life," Wybie offered, with a hand resting on her shoulder to give it a little squeeze. He balanced on his toes as he gaze her a sympathetic smile, head cocked to the side. Something physically hurt inside of his chest when she looked up at him with teary eyes. "It's not your job to worry about that." 

"Then who's is it?"

He didn't have an answer for that, no matter how much his mouth open and shut in the most professional imitation of a beached fish. Coraline shrugged his hand off of her, standing up from the dirt to wipe her pants clean. She didn't look at him. She couldn't. Deliberately staring just to the side as though it made it easier to face him. He stood up in a haste to match her and nearly lost his balance on the slope. "Coraline--"

"I don't care what you think, Wybourn." She interrupted him firmly, her arms folded over her stomach. Fingers digging into her forearms to the point where he almost flinched. "I've made up my mind. I don't have a choice, nobody else is going to do it. No one should have to- to go through that, alright? No kid should be alone like that!"

He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by the party beckoning them back. Specifically, Coraline's mother. "Coraline! Grandma wants to hear about your gardening!"

"Enjoy the party, Wybourn." She ended the conversation without waiting for him to reply. Hoisting herself over the wall to navigate through the plants she'd tended to herself. Her voice was chipper and excited when she called back across the garden. "Have you seen my sunflowers, Grandma? These have the best bloom I've ever seen!"

Wybourn lingered just outside the fence, watching as Coraline fell seamlessly into the archetype of a cheery pre-college teen that her family expected of her. Nobody even thought twice about it. "God dammit." He breathed out softly, kicking a rock against the stone fence. 

There was no reason he _should_ follow her to God Only Knows Where. 

She was his friend, of course, but she'd made it very clear she didn't want his company. He was nervous, prone to cowardice, he liked to hide behind goofy masks with big lenses and an over-inflated sense of humor. He was goofy and lighthearted and not cut out for being afraid.

Coraline, on the other hand... Coraline was almost fearless. He'd watched her cup spiders in her bare hands to release them outside and coaxed stray animals close enough to pet. She stood up to jerks at school, even if they were twice her size. She laughed through the jumpscares and wore grotesque masks alongside him every Halloween when they terrorized the town. She was the embodiment of bravery, in his eyes.

Wybourn knew better than anyone that she wasn't _completely_ fearless. She had her moments where she shriveled up and hid behind her hands and screamed and cried until someone calmed her down. Someone who she never _asked_ for help, he was just always there. Who she had gone to _when_ she'd been scared. Who had been her moral support, her shoulder to cry on, who had stayed up night after night because she was scared of the dark and she was certain she heard something creeping through the hall. Who had been there for her, for all these years? 

God _dammit,_ he had. 

She could be brave and strong and capable, but she shouldn't have to do it _alone._

In the end, he realized, he didn't have a choice. If Coraline was going off into the world, risking her ass, he was going to be right there beside her. 

When the next morning came and Coraline was finishing packing her things into a single bag, Wybie's presence in her doorway nearly scared her half to death. Downstairs, her mother called through the house. "Coraline! Wybie's here!" 

"You're a pain in the ass, you know," he pointed out as he entered her room. The questions were visible on her face, so he didn't give her the chance to ask them. "I'm coming with you, obviously, so you don't get yourself killed. If you're going to be a fucking moron, you should at least have backup."

"You're not coming with me," Coraline scoffed, no longer paying attention as she tucked a journal into the outer pocket of her bag. Pens shoved haphazardly in after it. It wasn't well organized, but she had plenty of time to figure out what would work best for her. "Your grandma won't let you."

"Grandma will understand, I'm a grown man. I told her I want to help you with getting moved in." As though it were his own room, he approached her neatly made bed and flopped on top of it. Stretching out comfortably with his boots up on her sheets until she slapped him in the shin. "Face it, You're going to need me."

An eyebrow quirked toward her hairline as she looked up at him and his cocky smirk. "And why, exactly, would I need you?" She asked slowly, zipping her bag up.

He'd rehearsed this, she realized as he rooted through his pockets, pulling a set of keys from his pocket. Jingling them in front of his face, he informed her with a sing-song lilt. "I have the wheels, Jonesy."

Silence.

Coraline stared at him. At the keys.

When he jingled them again, she rolled her eyes. 

"I don't need to get a ride from you, I can--"

"Burn up all your money getting cabs? Get murdered while hitching a ride from strangers? Listen, I get that this is your great quest for closure, but you're not getting rid of me."

With her bag packed, she hoisted it over her shoulder. Her gaze practically challenged him to rethink his voice. He merely smiled, reaching over to her nightstand to pick up a ratty old stuffed animal. "Pwease wet Wybourn look after you, Jonesy! He's a great protector! Wook at his HUGE MUSCLES!"

"Why-were-you-born, you've never had anything remotely close to muscles,” She replied dryly, rounding the bed to get close enough to point a finger in his face. "You can come, but I am _not_ saving your ass!"


End file.
